= Craftsman Metal Lathe =

1941 => 1947  Craftsman 109.2063 lathe made by Double A Products Co.

This little lathe once belonged to my Grandfather, and I was able to rescued it from my Dad's woodshed before it fell down around it.  It was really in rough shape when I brought it home, but in the next couple weeks an amazing thing happened.  I found a perfectly good lathe under all that rust! I have taken a lot of photos but first a little back ground on this lathe.  Back then this lathe was sold out of the Sears, Roebuck & Co. catalogue for $47.95 with the 1/4hp motor.  It has an oddball 1/2-20 headstock and #0 morse taper which makes finding accessories for it a little tricky. However, with the set of gears sold with it,  you can cut threads from 8 to 96 per inch. I am glad to say I do have a full set of gears and hardware for this. The lathe is driven by a belt connected motor and depending on the pulley setting, and back gears can run from 120rpm to 1325rpm. This is a smaller lathe and has a 6" swing and a 12" span.

Now  a days with the wonders of the Internet & places like e-bay, these projects are so much easier. Another big help is Bill Hardin from "Home Shop Supply" who has the best website for these lathes. Not only is he a wealth of information, but he sells many parts, manuals and even reproduction decals!

Here is what it looked like after I got it home and removed from the plywood it was bolted onto.  It did have a motor hooked to it, and even though it would run if hand started, I found a motor with probably less than 10 hours on it that fit the bill a lot nicer.

I was very happy when the data tags came off so nicely, I was even able to save the rivets for re-use!

Before and after. These parts were sandblasted clean. (note the rubber plugs inserted for protection while sandblasting)

Now we are getting some where.  The parts were primed with a zinc etching primer & the painted in "New Ford Gray" engine enamel

The motor mount design is designed from some left over spare parts to my  Ryobi table saw.  They were part of the hardware for the out feed support on the back of the table saw.  I had to make a temporary bracket while a second  short bracket on back order. The shapley washers are "finish trim washers with a 1/4" washer behind it for strength, it is kind of a washer beauty cap.

Here is a recent addition of a threaded tailstock shaft from "Home Shop Supply"  I did have to remove about 5mm off the length from the end inside the tailstock. This brought the threads just flush to the tailstock, with the threads still outside. One nice feature is that the dead center can stay in place with my drill chuck. The chuck is threaded to 1/2"-20 tpi so it fits the new tailstock or the headstock without an adaptor.  This also allows me to use a MT-1 to 1/2"-20 for my wood lathes and only have one chuck.

A couple details, I personally think the oil can was a nice touch. On the left you can see a close-up of Bill Harding's decals.

Here is the lathe in it's final resting place in the shop.  I need to finish the doors on the lathe stand still.

        So, there we have it, a one month restoration on a lathe that is close to 60 years old.

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